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The Underworld

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Description

Mostly steep sport climbing though some of the original lines may need some trad gear. Shady, so generally cool in summer and cold in winter, though well protected from wind.

This area is located on private property owned by the Hydro Majestic Hotel. Access could be removed at any time. Please respect the land.

© (Ashy)

Access issues inherited from Medlow Bath

Many of these crags are located on private property - and could be closed at any time. Do not piss off local residents by parking cars at the end of Belgravia St - park back near the train line and walk 100m up the road.

The Belgravia St descent track and Devondale bouldering is located on private property (it is NOT owned by the Hydro Majestic Hotel). This property changed hands in 2018 for a cool $1.9 million, and the new landowners have not expressed concerns about the public on their land - yet. It is very important that this property is treated with utmost respect - and if you are approached by the owners then please be courteous. If they have concerns please get them to contact ACANSW.

Blue Mountains City Council is the land manager for The Block, Katoomba Bros, Sandpit, Valley Farm & Sooty Crag. Access to all these areas is via the private land mentioned above.

The mega lux Hydro Majestic Hotel owns private land that includes the Sunbath Wall, Reservoir Dogs, Sporting Complex, The Underworld & Pole 28. Access to to these private land crags is NOT guaranteed and could be closed at any time.

DJ crag is also located on private property - with the owner apparently living below the cliff itself.

Approach

The Underworld is tucked in a small gully underneath The Hydro Majestic and might be considered the "back wall" of the Sporting Complex buttress. Continue around from the top of SC then drop down into gully following track to the bottom. Most routes start on the elevated tier on the right. There are some much easier (20ish) vertical routes at the left end, on the 12m wall below the starting ledge of 'Julius Caesar'.

© (Ashy)

Ethic inherited from Blue Mountains

Although sport climbing is well entrenched as the most popular form of Blueys climbing, mixed-climbing on gear and bolts has generally been the rule over the long term. Please try to use available natural gear where possible, and do not bolt cracks or potential trad climbs. If you do the bolts may be removed.

Because of the softness of Blue Mountains sandstone, bolting should only be done by those with a solid knowledge of glue-in equipping. A recent fatality serves as a reminder that this is not an area to experiment with bolting.

If you do need to top rope, please do it through your own gear as the wear on the anchors is both difficult and expensive to maintain.

At many Blue Mountains crags, the somewhat close spacing of routes and prolific horizontal featuring means that it is easy to envisage literally hundreds of trivial linkups. By all means climb these to your hearts content but, unless it is an exceptional case due to some significant objective merit, please generally refrain from writing up linkups. A proliferation of descriptions of trivial linkups would only clutter up the guide and add confusion and will generally not add value to your fellow climbers. (If you still can't resist, consider adding a brief note to the parent route description, rather than cluttering up the guide with a whole new route entry).

If you have benefited from climbing infrastructure in NSW, please consider making a donation towards maintenance costs. The Sydney Rockclimbing Club Rebolting Fund finances the replacement of old bolts on existing climbs and the maintenance of other hardware such as fixed ropes and anchors. The SRC purchases hardware, such as bolts and glue, and distributes them to volunteer rebolters across the state of New South Wales. For more information, including donation details, visit https://sydneyrockies.org.au/rebolting/

It would be appreciated if brushing of holds and minimisation/removal of tick marks becomes part of your climbing routine. Consider bringing a water squirt bottle and mop-up rag to better remove chalk. Only use soft (hair/nylon) bristled brushes, never steel brushes.

The removal of vegetation - both from the cliff bases and the climbs - is not seen as beneficial to aesthetics of the environment nor to our access to it.

Remember, to maintain access our best approach is to 'Respect Native Habitat, Tread Softly and Leave No Trace'. Do not cut flora and keep any tracks and infrastructure as minimal as possible or risk possible closures.

For the latest access related information, or to report something of concern, visit the Australian Climbing Association NSW Blue Mountains page at https://acansw.org.au/blue-mountains/

History

History timeline chart

Developed and forgotten about it then received a new look and a bunch of mostly hard new sport routes went up.

© (Ashy)

Tags

Some content has been provided under license from: © Australian Climbing Association Queensland (Creative Commons, Attribution, Share-Alike 2.5 AU)

Routes

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Grade Route

Unknown first route, seems to be about a 19. Has not had much traffic and lots of loose blocks.

Excellent, and unusually steep for the Blueys.

Start: Start towards the left end of the elevated ledge.

FA: G. Collum, 1994

Start: Start 4m R of JC. Powerful, bouldery with a few tricks to be found

FA: V Day, 2009

A few meters right of Public Enemies. Apparently one very hard move. Bolted by Vince Day

Climbing the bloc/fridge feature on the underside of Gravel Rash. Will be a compression special

This is the splitter crack out the humungous roofs. Very well protected with various sizes of cams. Has a double ring bolt lower off.

FA: G. Child, 1994

Up GR for about 8m, then head 10m right along the break/wall thing out the huge roof to the lip. The gear is mostly bad old bolts and pitons, with perhaps some trad and 1 or 2 new bolts where the new lines cross the traverse.

Start: Start as for 'Gravel Rash'.

FA: G. Child & M. Taylor, 1993

Few meters right of Gravel Rash. Up steep scoop to base of roof. Bouldery through roof then head right to Assassins/Hashish final boulder. Bolted by Zac Vertrees. Ben Cossey has temp bolts going direct out the roof. Stay off them, they will not hold a climbing fall.

FA: Tom O'Halloran, 8 May 2023

First route to start on right side of cave. Scamper around blunt arete to start, trending up and right toward lava rock roof. Funky moves through roof to good rest then gear up for the crux through step prow. It might be the second time you go feet first on this climb. Hard for the grade.

FA: Z Vertrees, 2010

Start as for Assassins, climbing through the first lava roof. Instead of going into Assassins final roof crux, head right along break to final little gate keeper moves. A great new addition to the crag. Named after Matt's dog Sadie who sadly died a few days after scoping it out with him.

FA: Matt Burnett, 20 Jul 2021

Tackles the obvious prow near the centre of the wall, then through the roof and finish along left at the lip. Has an fun final move.

Start up Mississippi Moonshine then head across left through juggy but surprisingly punchy roof to join Assassins at its final rest and crux.

Start up Mississippi Moonshine, do its undercling crux, then step left and join Back to the Underground for its final crux.

Start 3m right of the prow and climb the black shale tufa feature, then trend left through the roof and back right to finish over the lip. Back jump to clean.

FA: V Day, 2010

The very steep and impressive line 5m right of Mississippi. Its hard! Bolted by Vince Day

Start as for Sack of Woe, then left to very steep prow. Joins the last moves of Up Jumped the Devil.

FA: Tom O'Halloran, Aug 2023

4m right of Up Jumped the Devil. Climbs straight up. Nowhere to hide on this. One of the best bouldery routes in the mountains. New sequence makes it a bit easier than the FA beta.

Bouldery start off the diving board. Grungy top section.

Start up the bouldery start of The River Styx, traverse about 8m left to finish at a U-bolt and fixed wire just up on the headwall.

FA: H Sutton, 2010

The long traverse starting as for The River Styx, then finishing at the anchors of Prohibition. Great jugging along the break.

FA: H Sutton, 2010

A few meters right of Odyssey/Styx etc. Right trending line with hard moves on mono and gnarly edges and no particular finish (at halfway break?). Bolted by Macca Macpherson

Start on obvious little prow after walking through the ferns. Heads left through scoops and hard moves to finish up high on nice looking headwall. Bolted Matt Norgrove

Start at prow through ferns. Up steep, right trending climbing to ledge (27 to here). Then blast out big holds and big moves in roof to a jumpy crux at lip (careful with belay). Then climb to top of the cliff.

FA: Tom O'Halloran

Set: Vince Day

As for Chulahoma to ledge, then head further right under roof to next line of bolts. Funky climbing to make it through roof and around lip. Grade is a total guess. Tom was working moves and had no real sequence sorted. Went up for another working burn and just climbed the whole way through. He went back a few years later and couldn't figure out the sequence that worked and it all felt hard.

FA: Tom O'Halloran, 17 Mar 2015

Start: Directly up the blunt arete. edit: no info is known about where this route is.

FA: E Jurg, 2010

A bouldery little route in a small amphitheatre up from the main crag.

FA: Matt Burnett, 17 Sep 2017

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Selected Guidebooks more Hide

Author(s): Simon Carter

Date: 2019

ISBN: 9780958079082

The latest comprehensive, latest and greatest Blue Mountains Climbing Guide is here and it has more routes than you can poke a clip stick at! 3421 to be exact. You are not going to get bored.

Author(s): Simon Carter

Date: 2019

ISBN: 9780958079075

Simon Carter's "Best of the Blue" is the latest selected climbing guide book for the Blue Mountains and covers 1000 routes and 19 different climbing areas. For all the sport climbers out there, the travellers, or just anyone who doesn't want to lug around the big guide that's more than 3 times the size - cut out the riff-raff and get to the good stuff! This will pretty much cover everything you need!

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Tue 25 Apr
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